Employment Services Utilization and Outcomes among Substance Abusing Offenders Participating in California’s Proposition 36 Drug Treatment Initiative

California drug treatment programs may use funds to address barriers to work faced by Proposition 36 offenders, most of whom are not working at treatment entry, but employment services utilization and related behavioral outcomes have never been studied. This study examined primary data collected on 1,453 offenders by 30 programs during 2004 to explore the characteristics, employment services utilization, and outcomes of those who did and did not receive employment services while in drug treatment. One-year outcomes were mostly similar across groups, however, increases in the proportion of offenders employed, receiving income from employment and family or friends, and being paid for work were significantly greater among the received-employment-services group, and a greater proportion of this group also completed drug treatment. Employment services utilization was less likely for persons recruited from outpatient settings and more likely with greater severity of family/social problems and desire for services. Odds of employment one-year post-treatment entry were higher for those of Hispanic race/ethnicity (vs. White) and for those with treatment completion/longer retention but lower for those who were older, lived in specific counties, had greater employment problem severity at intake, and received other income-related services. Strategies for improving employment services utilization and outcomes among Proposition 36 offenders are discussed

Leaf out times of temperate woody plants are related to phylogeny, deciduousness, growth habit and wood anatomy

Leaf out phenology affects a wide variety of ecosystem processes and ecological interactions and will take on added significance as leaf out times increasingly shift in response to warming temperatures associated with climate change. There is, however, relatively little information available on the factors affecting species differences in leaf out phenology. An international team of researchers from eight Northern Hemisphere temperate botanical gardens recorded leaf out dates of c. 1600 woody species in 2011 and 2012. Leaf out dates in woody species differed by as much as 3 months at a single site and exhibited strong phylogenetic and anatomical relationships. On average, angiosperms leafed out earlier than gymnosperms, deciduous species earlier than evergreen species, shrubs earlier than trees, diffuse and semi-ring porous species earlier than ring porous species, and species with smaller diameter xylem vessels earlier than species with larger diameter vessels. The order of species leaf out was generally consistent between years and among sites. As species distribution and abundance shift due to climate change, interspecific differences in leaf out phenology may affect ecosystem processes such as carbon, water, and nutrient cycling. Our open access leaf out data provide a critical framework for monitoring and modelling such changes going forward

Assessment of Lifespan Functioning Attainment (ALFA) scale: A quantitative interview for self-reported current and functional decline in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia has been characterized as a disorder with poor outcomes across various functional domains, especially social and occupational functioning. Although these outcomes have been investigated based on patients’ current functioning, few studies have considered the assessment of functional outcomes across the lifespan in schizophrenia. We developed a novel and brief scale of adulthood lifespan functioning, the Assessment of Lifespan Functioning Attainment (ALFA). We assessed current functioning and percentage of pre- and post-psychosis onset engagement for five functional domains including paid employment, living independently, romantic partnerships, close friendships, and recreational engagement with others. Pre- to post-psychosis functional decline was observed for all domains, with paid employment having the greatest decline (d = 2.68) and living independently having the least decline (d =.59). Our exploratory factor analysis suggests that a single factor accounted for the most variance in Pre-Psychosis Functioning in ALFA domains. Two factors explain the majority of variance in Post-Psychosis Functioning and Pre-to-Post Psychosis Decline: a sociability factor (close friendships and recreational engagement with others) and an independence factor (paid employment, living independently, romantic relationships). To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on a self-reported quantitative assessment of adult lifespan functioning in schizophrenia. The ALFA scale may be a useful tool for future research on functional outcomes in schizophrenia